Golf green divot repair tool

ABSTRACT

A golf green divot repair tool includes a body portion and a single elongate prong attached to the body portion and defining a longitudinal axis. The body portion has opposed upper and lower surfaces, with the upper surface including a thumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuate recess, opposed side walls located on either side of the recess, and a stop located adjacent the prong, the recess, side walls and stop smoothly merging with each other. The prong includes a tip and a shaft, the shaft being attached to the body portion, the shaft including at least two upper faces that merge at a plough edge, the plough edge being centered on the shaft parallel with the longitudinal axis.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority from and the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/938,419, filed Feb. 11, 2014, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to golf, and more particularlyto repairing ball marks on a green caused by a golf ball.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Green repair tools having a ball mark retention function are used bygolfers today. Well-known golf accessories for repairing greensincluding a body having prongs extending therefrom to repair the turfaround and in the ball mark depression so as to repair the golf green.The body typically will have a circular recess with a magnetized backingto receive a metallic disc ball marker thereon. Other green repair toolsmay have a slot in the body through which the marker is inserted, and afinger aperture or opening in the body side that allows the golfer topush the marker up through the slot so as to retrieve the markertherefrom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As a first aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a golfgreen divot repair tool, comprising: a body portion; and a singleelongate prong attached to the body portion and defining a longitudinalaxis. The body portion has opposed upper and lower surfaces, with theupper surface including a thumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuaterecess, opposed side walls located on either side of the recess, and astop located adjacent the prong, the recess, side walls and stopsmoothly merging with each other. The prong includes a tip and a shaft,the shaft being attached to the body portion, the shaft including atleast two upper faces that merge at a plough edge, the plough edge beingcentered on the shaft parallel with the longitudinal axis.

As a second aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a golfgreen divot repair tool, comprising: a body portion; and a singleelongate prong attached to the body portion and defining a longitudinalaxis. The body portion has opposed upper and lower surfaces, with theupper surface including a thumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuaterecess, opposed side walls located on either side of the recess, and astop located adjacent the prong, the recess, side walls and stopsmoothly merging with each other. The prong includes a tip and a shaft,the shaft being attached to the body portion, the shaft including atleast two upper faces that merge at a plough edge, the plough edge beingcentered on the shaft parallel with the longitudinal axis, the shaftfurther including opposed side walls that are substantially parallelwith each other.

As a third aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a golfgreen divot repair tool, comprising: a body portion; and a singleelongate prong attached to the body portion and defining a longitudinalaxis. The body portion has opposed upper and lower surfaces, with theupper surface including a thumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuaterecess, opposed side walls located on either side of the recess, and astop located adjacent the prong, the recess, side walls and stopsmoothly merging with each other. The repair tool further comprises agolf ball marker with a post, the golf ball marker attached to the bodyportion via the post being inserted into an aperture located on thelower surface of the body portion beneath the stop.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a golf green divot repair tool accordingto embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the repair tool of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the repair tool of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the repair tool of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a rear view of the repair tool of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the repair tool of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is an opposite side view of the repair tool of FIG. 1, with theball marker removed.

FIG. 8 is a section view of the repair tool of FIG. 1 taken along linesA-A of FIG. 2.

FIG. 9 is a section view of the repair tool of FIG. 1 taken along linesB-B of FIG. 3.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged partial view of the repair tool of FIG. 1 showingthe inset C denoted in FIG. 4.

FIG. 11 is a side view illustrating how the repair tool of FIG. 1 can begrasped for use in repairing a golf green divot.

FIG. 12 is a front view illustrating how the repair tool of FIG. 1 canbe grasped for use in repairing the far side of a golf green divot.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which certain embodiments of the invention are shown. Thisinvention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and shouldnot be construed as limited to the embodiments that are pictured anddescribed herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey thescope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It will also beappreciated that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in anyway and/or combination to provide many additional embodiments.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms that areused in this disclosure have the same meaning as commonly understood byone of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Theterminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused in this disclosure, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” areintended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearlyindicates otherwise. It will also be understood that when an element(e.g., a device, circuit, etc.) is referred to as being “connected” or“coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled tothe other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast,when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or“directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elementspresent.

Referring now to the figures, a golf green repair tool, designatedbroadly at 20, is shown in FIGS. 1-10. The tool 20 includes generally abody portion 22 and a single elongate prong 24. These structures aredescribed in detail below.

The body portion 22 includes opposed upper and lower surfaces 26, 28. Ascan be seen in FIG. 8, the lower surface 28 has a depression 30 near oneend thereof and a projection 32 adjacent the depression 30. An aperture34 extends upwardly from the projection 32. A golf ball marker 36 havinga disk 38 and a post 40 is attached to the body portion 22 via the post40 being inserted into the aperture 34.

The upper surface 26 of the body portion 22 has a sloped stop 42 that isgenerally above the projection 32. Opposed side walls 44, 46 extendrearwardly from the stop 42. An arcuate recess 48 is bounded by the stop42 and the side walls 44, 46. As seen in FIGS. 5 and 8, the stop 42 andthe side walls 44, 46 merge smoothly with the recess 48 to define athumb pad 50 configured to receive the thumb of a user. An indentation41 is present at the end of the body portion 22 opposite the stop 42.The sides of the body portion 22 are slightly concave to promote propergripping of the tool 20.

The prong 24 includes a shaft 52 and a tip 54. As can be seen in FIGS. 5and 10, the prong 24 is generally pentagonal in cross-section, includingfive faces: two angled upper faces 56, 58 that merge at a slightlyrounded plough edge 60, two opposed side faces 62, 64, and a bottom face66. The upper faces 56, 58 define a plough angle of between about 100and 140 degrees. The base end of the shaft 52 is attached to the bodyportion 22 adjacent the stop 42. It can also be seen in FIGS. 2, 3 and10 that the shaft 52 is tapered (typically at an angle of 5 degrees orgreater, and in some embodiments as much as 20 or 25 degrees or more)such that it narrows as it extends away from the stop 42. The tip 54 isattached to the opposite end of the shaft 52 and tapers further to agenerally rounded end. The prong 24 defines a longitudinal axis A. Theaxis A is positioned such that the thumb pad 50 is centered thereon.

When a user wishes to repair a divot formed by a golf ball on a puttinggreen, the user grasps the tool 20 with his thumb on the thumb pad 50and his index finger (and perhaps additional fingers) under the lowersurface 28 of the body portion 22. The recess 48 in the thumb pad 50ergonomically positions the user's thumb, and the stop 42 provides astructure that can prevent the thumb from slipping toward the prong 24(see FIG. 11). The user's fingers wrap around and underneath the bodyportion 22, with their positioning encouraged by the concave profile ofthe sides of the body portion 22. Typically the ball marker 36 isremoved from the aperture 34 for divot repair, with its removalfacilitated by the presence of the depression 30.

The tool 20 is inserted adjacent the divot with the prong 24 extendingat an angle beside and, to a certain extent, underneath the divot. Theinsertion angle may be between about 30 and 90 degrees, but is typicallybetween about 45 and 60 degrees. The body portion 22 of the tool 20 isthen forced toward the divot. This motion is encouraged by thepositioning of the user's thumb on the thumb pad 50 directly above thebase of the prong 24. Conversely, incorrect motions (such as forcing thebody portion 22 away from the divot, such that the prong 24 is liftingtoward the divot in a digging motion) are discouraged by the positionsof the thumb and the fingers wrapped underneath the body portion 22.

The shape of the shaft 52 of the prong 24, and in particular the ploughedge 60 present between the upper faces 56, 58, and the plough angleformed by the upper faces, helps to raise the soil without tearing theroots of the grass when inserted into the ground at an angle fromoutside the divot and moved toward the bottom of the divot. Moreover,the plough edge 60 can help to loosen, and thereby aerate, the soilcompacted by the divot. Similarly, the taper in the shaft 52 can assistin providing a “ploughing” action that helps to aerate the soil.

As shown in FIG. 12, the tool 10 may also be used easily to repair thefar side of a divot. The user can place his thumb on the thumb pad 50and the knuckle of his index finger over the indentation 41 in the bodyportion 22, then insert the prong 24 into the ground adjacent the farside of a divot and pull the body portion 22 toward himself. This actionwill repair in the divot in the proper fashion without tearing the rootsystem as discussed above.

The tool 20 is typically formed as a monolithic component, and may beformed by injection molding. Exemplary materials for the tool 20 includeconventional thermoplastics such as nylon and ABS, biocompositematerials, and metals.

The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to beconstrued as limiting thereof. Although exemplary embodiments of thisinvention have been described, those skilled in the art will readilyappreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplaryembodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings andadvantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications areintended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined inthe claims. The invention is defined by the following claims, withequivalents of the claims to be included therein.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A golf green divot repair tool, comprising:a body portion; and a single elongate prong attached to the body portionand defining a longitudinal axis; wherein the body portion has opposedupper and lower surfaces, with the upper surface including a thumb pad,the thumb pad defined by an arcuate recess, opposed side walls locatedon either side of the recess, and a stop located adjacent the prong, therecess, side walls and stop smoothly merging with each other; whereinthe prong includes a tip and a shaft, the shaft being attached to thebody portion, the shaft including at least two upper faces that merge ata plough edge, the plough edge being centered on the shaft parallel withthe longitudinal axis.
 2. The repair tool defined in claim 1, whereinthe tip includes multiple faces.
 3. The repair tool defined in claim 1,wherein the shaft is generally pentagonal in cross-section.
 4. Therepair tool defined in claim 3, wherein the shaft includes opposed sidewalls, and wherein the side walls are substantially parallel with eachother.
 5. The repair tool defined in claim 1, wherein the shaft tapersfrom end to end, with a narrower end being adjacent the tip.
 6. Therepair took defined in claim 1, wherein the thumb pad is centered on thelongitudinal axis.
 7. The repair tool defined in claim 1, wherein theside walls of the thumb pad are tapered in the axial direction.
 8. Therepair tool defined in claim 1, wherein the lower surface of the bodyportion includes a depression directly beneath the thumb pad.
 9. Therepair tool defined in claim 1, further comprising a golf ball markerattached to the body portion.
 10. The repair tool defined in claim 9,wherein the golf ball marker includes a post, and wherein the post isinserted into an aperture located on the lower surface of the bodyportion beneath the stop.
 11. A golf green divot repair tool,comprising: a body portion; and a single elongate prong attached to thebody portion and defining a longitudinal axis; wherein the body portionhas opposed upper and lower surfaces, with the upper surface including athumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuate recess, opposed sidewalls located on either side of the recess, and a stop located adjacentthe prong, the recess, side walls and stop smoothly merging with eachother; wherein the prong includes a tip and a shaft, the shaft beingattached to the body portion, the shaft including at least two upperfaces that merge at a plough edge, the plough edge being centered on theshaft parallel with the longitudinal axis, the shaft further includingopposed side walls that are substantially parallel with each other. 12.The repair tool defined in claim 11, wherein the shaft tapers from endto end, with a narrower end being adjacent the tip.
 13. The repair tookdefined in claim 11, wherein the thumb pad is centered on thelongitudinal axis.
 14. The repair tool defined in claim 11, wherein theside walls of the thumb pad are tapered in the axial direction.
 15. Therepair tool defined in claim 11, wherein the lower surface of the bodyportion includes a depression directly beneath the thumb pad.
 16. Therepair tool defined in claim 11, further comprising a golf ball markerattached to the body portion.
 17. The repair tool defined in claim 16,wherein the golf ball marker includes a post, and wherein the post isinserted into an aperture located on the lower surface of the bodyportion beneath the stop.
 18. A golf green divot repair tool,comprising: a body portion; and a single elongate prong attached to thebody portion and defining a longitudinal axis; wherein the body portionhas opposed upper and lower surfaces, with the upper surface including athumb pad, the thumb pad defined by an arcuate recess, opposed sidewalls located on either side of the recess, and a stop located adjacentthe prong, the recess, side walls and stop smoothly merging with eachother; the repair tool further comprising a golf ball marker with apost, the golf ball marker attached to the body portion via the postbeing inserted into an aperture located on the lower surface of the bodyportion beneath the stop.